Author's Note: I don't own Marvel or any of their characters. Only Dr. Susanne Rosen and her boyfriend belong to me.

xxxx

While Bruce was waiting for Susanne to get back with the food, someone opened the door of the main part of the house. Not wanting to disturb whoever it was, Bruce stayed in the office. Susanne came back through the front door.

After she walked around a bit (Bruce could hear her footsteps), she came into the office. "My live-in boyfriend came home while I was gone. Let's eat in the dining room."

Bruce took off the exterior plumbing and removed his backpack. "I can finish my formula on the way home. I haven't had any solid food since lunch." After straightening his shirt, he was ready to met this live-in boyfriend.

"Ready?" Susanne asked.

Bruce pushed up his glasses that were already high up on his nose. "I suppose."

The food was on the dining room table. His food and whatever Susanne bought for herself and her boyfriend. She also poured him a glass of water with ice. Bruce was looking at his feet when a man walked over to him.

"Hi, I'm Mike," said the man in nice slacks and polished brown leather shoes.

Bruce, finally, looked up and shook the hand of an average looking man with a bit of a potbelly hanging over his work pants. "I'm Bruce. I was a client of Susanne's over three years ago and thought I would look her up."

"She doesn't usually invite former clients to dinner. This is a first." Mike looked at him and the large amount of food for one person. Then he could be bringing most of it home for later. "You're Ellen's Bruce. Not her Bruce. The one that she had the building evacuated for. Hi."

"You said hi," said Bruce. "You don't drop a car on me and I won't trash your house. I promise."

"A car fell on you?" asked Susanne.

"Scott and I were changing the tires and the jack broke and the car rolled backwards and onto me. I shouted for Scott to leave when I felt the other guy. No one got hurt."

"That doesn't make me feel better," said Mike.

"I know the other guy is scary, but he helped save the world from alien invasion twice." Bruce sat down with his food and ate Chana Masala with rice without taking the time to taste it. He no longer had an eating disorder, meaning Professor Xavier got the message. Then he sipped some water. He started dipping his bread in the spinach and ate it. "You can have some of my bread if you want."

Mike, eating his own food, was sitting on the other side of the table.

"I'm not going to make excuses for myself," said Bruce.

Mike asked, "Do you have a girlfriend? Are you married?"

"I'm married with a child on the way. When I met Susanne, I was scared to leave the floor at Stark Tower where my laboratory, office and apartment were. Afraid I would hurt people. Susanne had me push my boundaries. I started dating and stuff. She may not have saved my life, but she gave me a life worth living." Bruce started on his chicken. "I'm very grateful to her."

"Two months after we started therapy, Bruce went on his first date in over five years," said Susanne.

"Aren't you putting your wife and unborn child in danger?" asked Mike.

"That is a terrible thing to say," said Susanne.

After washing the food in his mouth down with some water, Bruce said, "I've heard worse."

"Your wife knows?" asked Mike.

"What is this twenty questions?" said Bruce. "Does Susanne know you're a jerk? I have a medical condition. You don't ask stupid questions of someone with diabetes."

"Susie, you shouldn't have brought him into our house," said Mike.

"He was banned from the office because of Ellen," said Susanne. "He needs therapy, but he needed food first. If you don't drop a car on him, he's as safe to be around as anyone else. He teaches at a private school."

"What subject?" asked Mike.

"Mostly math and general science," said Bruce. "It's a small school with under 30 students. I have 5 students that I'm teaching calculus and advanced-placement physics since you can't teach physics without the math."

Mike ate his food in silence.

Bruce went back to eating. Now that he wasn't ravenous and, not nearly as nervous, he ate a bit slower.

"Mike, be nice to him," said Susanne. "He's nervous about being a first time Dad. He's a mutant and that means his children will most likely carry the gene. You've seen the news."

"Mike, how do you feel about the mutant registration act?" said Bruce, making small talk. "I rather not have people knowing I change into a big green rage monster because they tend to act like you. Where do my rights to privacy end and your right to know begin?"

Mike stopped eating and appeared to think a second. "I, personally, wouldn't want you teaching my children, but you have the same right to work as everyone else. It's a hard question."

Bruce finished eating his bread. "I should have gotten three orders of Naan. Both sides have good points. Sorry I didn't save you any."

Mike touched his potbelly.

Bruce looked at Mike's belly for a second then returned to looking at his three orders of Indian food that were nearly gone. "60 percent of Americans are overweight and I have trouble eating enough to maintain my weight."

Mike said, "You look so normal."

"So do you." Bruce stirred some mint chutney into the rest of his rice.

"Mike, after dinner, go watch TV in the bedroom," said Susanne. "Bruce came all this distance on his bike to talk. And he won't talk around you since you aren't his former therapist."

Mike kissed Susanne's cheek. "I'll leave now." Then Mike got up from the table and left the room.

"I'm sorry about him," said Susanne. "Ellen had no business mentioning your name. I can't control what other people do or say. I shouldn't have told Ellen your name, but, at the time, I was angry that Ellen was treating you like an object. Client/therapist confidentiality goes out the window when it comes to the safety of the client and others. I'm sorry."

Bruce drank some more water. "At least, you didn't say my last name."

"Are you remembering the serenity prayer?" Susanne asked.

"After the car rolled onto me, I had a long walk back," said Bruce. "The other guy tends to like to run. I did my best not to worry before I knew the extent of the damage. The Hulk had totaled the car, but Scott ran when I told him to, so no one was hurt. Scott and I talked. His mutant power isn't passive like the girl who walks through walls, so he knows what is it like to be called a monster."

"So you're beating yourself up less?" Susanne said.

"Yes, I'm being good to myself." Bruce smiled. "One of the teachers at the school goes by her mutant name, so when Thor and Jane returned from Asgard for a visit, the gang asked for Hulk to be let out for adult time."

"How did you feel about that?"

"I'm OK with it." Bruce was still eating the last of his food. "I'm not the same person I was three years ago. I've grown a lot. We might be staying here awhile. My daughter might be more mutant than Asgardian and Loki didn't have a good experience growing up different on Asgard. She would be better off growing up in a school for mutants then as an outcast on Asgard."

"You have a lot to think about."

"It's also Sif's decision. Asgard is her home."

"How does she feel about staying?"

"She enjoys spending time with the students. Sometimes, I think she likes the students more than me. When Jean was alive, they had 2 female teachers and 2 male teachers. Now Ms. Monroe is the only female teacher. Since Sif isn't a teacher, she can be more of a surrogate parent to these children since she isn't grading them. I think she would miss them terribly if she left."

"You came here to talk to me." Susanne looked at Bruce with his brown eyes, curly hair and small smile. Then she looked at the now empty take-out boxes. "Talk."

"I didn't have the best role model on fatherhood," said Bruce. "My father wanted me dead. The last thing I remember was him calling me a useless container for his real son. People talk about the apple not falling far from the tree. I want to be a good parent."

"You aren't him or you wouldn't be having this conversation with me," Susanne said. "I still don't know where someone your size puts all that food."

"Hollow leg." Bruce attempted to smile. "I won't need any nutritional supplement tonight. Thanks. Sif will like not having me hooked up to the IV pole. She'll probably be asleep when I get back. Maybe, we can have some morning loving."

"How's your sex life with him back?"

"We manage."

"You should do more than manage."

Bruce shrugged his shoulders. "I am what I am. I got a respite for three years. I'm very thankful for that. I'm very capable of pleasuring my wife. We were never into vanilla sex, and I know how to make her scream in a good way."

"Bruce, go easy on yourself."

Bruce walked over to her office and packed his medical tubing and nutritional bag inside his backpack. Then he went over to use the bathroom one last time before hitting the road. Finally, he put on his jacket and put the backpack over his shoulder. "Thank you."

"I'm sorry about Mike," said Susanne.

"One girl at the school takes people's powers," said Bruce. "I, accidentally, touched her my first week teaching. She became this she-hulk while I lay dying on the floor. My students didn't treat me any differently after that. When I joined the Avengers, everyone but Tony was scared of me. These children didn't care about what I am. I'm just a teacher to them."

"I'm happy for you."

"I still have a lot of unresolved issues and I don't want to have another therapist because they may not handle my medical condition as well as you. You can come to the school or we can return to doing video chat. I have insurance."

"Video chat may be a good idea," said Susanne. "We'll talk later and figure out the details."